It's been two years since Eden Prime, two years since the assault on the Citadel, two years since you where killed. Cerberus as bought you back from the dead to find out what is making human colonies vanish. Given a list of names to for you, as Commander Shepard, to recruit. You and your new found team must stop the Collectors and prepare for the coming war of the Reapers.

PICK AND CHOOSE

On the Xbox 360 version of the game, you can import your Shepard from the original Mass Effect and depending if you saved Ashley or Kaiden, you will know right away that the choices you made in the first game matters here. On the Playstation 3 version, it will start off like you never played the original Mass Effect, and how could you? Microsoft owns the publishing rights to Mass Effect so seeing the original coming to the PS3 is highly unlikely. After the intro, set two months after the first game, you get a chance to watch a comic book style recap of the first game. It's a clever way to bring Playstation 3 players up to speed if they never played the first one. Another thing about it is you can pick six choices players had to make in the first game. The downside about this is that the only way to get it is either buying The Cerberus Network or getting the game new. It's not that big of a deal, but seeing that Mass Effect 3 will, supposedly, tie up everything, it kind of sucks.


Six ways to play

After the comic recap, you go into the character creation screen. This is where you can either make a new Shepard or create your own; I created my own. You can choose from various aspects of your character. There are six classes in total, and all have their own unique gameplay. For my female Shepard I picked the solider class. The solider class allows Mass Effect to play out like a third person shooter. What makes solider class different from the rest is that it is the only class you can use an Assault Rifle and adrenaline. For my Shepard, I named her Emily based on Emily Haines of Metric. While I named my Shepard after her, it does not look like her; Short black hair, green eyes, and dark purple lipstick. I thought it was black, but towards the end I saw that it was purple.

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD

Once the game starts, you wake up and the lab you are in is under attack. Because I choose the solider class, the game plays like a third person shooter. Despite this, you can still command your party into doing things for you. One of the first person you meet during the attack is a man named Jacob. He's got biotic powers so you can use that to your advantage. This is a pretty neat way to show off what you are missing. I am planning to start again with a male Shepard and this time using Vanguard. The commands are easy to do; push a button, command your squad or pick something for you, and see the results. It may sounds strange to say, but I play the game like Dragon Age. I never used the quick select. I bring up the wheel, see my surroundings, and plan accordingly. It's more effective, than just simply pushing a button.

After you escape from the attack with Jacob and Miranda, you are met with the Illusive Man. The person that founded Cerberus. He tells you that colonies are going missing and it's up to you to find out who and why. This is one of the reasons why the recreated Shepard. The Illusive man gives you a dossier full of names and you go and try to recruit them. He also gives you a brand new ship that is modeled after the first Normandy.


Pause, look, dominate

Once you find out who, the Illusive Man tells Shepard that he must go through the Omega 4 Relay. The Omega 4 Relay is a lost Relay. Instead of shining blue, like the rest, it shines red. Anyone that has past through it has never returned. It's best to have all your team and ship upgraded before passing through. Along the way, you can collect resources by scanning planets and doing random side quests. The most important side quests is the loyalty quests. After talking to your teammates, they will ask you to do something for them. If you do the loyalty missions, they will trust you and will have a good chance of surviving. I say good chance because I did Miranda's loyalty mission and she still ended up killed. She was the only member in my team to die.

EXPANDING OUR LITTLE TEAM

The cast of characters expands from the original Mass Effect. The locations you go expands also, and instead of having every building look identical, they all look different with different layouts. The planets are no longer identical. There are alot of planets to explore and to land. Sometimes you can find unique things that can only be found in the planet. This is also where the DLC comes in. If you have the PS3 version, there are 3 great DLC to do; Lair of the Shadow Broker, Kasumi: Stolen Memory, and Overlord. Shadow Broker is the best one and it answers what the Shadow Broker is.


Shooting

There is no two ways to play the game. You can be either paragon or a renegade. It's all up to you. The bad thing about this is that you pretty much know what will gain the most paragon or renegade points. If you choose a renegade option, you will have more renegade points given to you and a little bit of paragon. Same implies if you picked paragon. There are many hours to be had in Mass Effect 2. It will take a good while to do everything this game has to offer.


With Mass Effect 3 on its way, I can imagine that everyone that is getting the game is playing Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, so they can see if all those choices they made are really worth it at the end. I have high hopes for Mass Effect 3. If Mass Effect 3 ends up being bad, at least we know that we got two excellent games to fall back on.

After I beat a game I reflect everything that I did on the game; Was it good? Was it bad? Was it worth remembering, and going back to? Unfortunately, Battlefield 3's answer is no. From a technical standpoint, it's great. The characters go past Uncanny Valley and into something more real. From a gameplay standpoint, it's greatly lacking.

GAMEPLAY

Battlefield 3 is the definition of mediocre. All the buttons you have used in past first person shooters can be used here. You aim and you shoot. Nothing changes. In the game you either follow someone, or there will be an indicator telling you where to go. There is no freedom in this game. If you stray to far you will die. It's either do this, or risk taking a bullet to the head. While the areas do feel big, where you will go is not. Because you are following something 90% at the time, you can't go out and explore different vantage points and ways to flank. The game lets you flank whenever it tells you to. The game will also tell you to do something that will guarantee an instant death.


Push To Win

The game does allow breaks between the shooting. In one mission you can drive a tank. The controls of the tank is like every other game out there; awkward. Because they tell you where to go and who to shoot, this section of the game is more boring than it should be. If the section was more exciting, I would not have mind the awkward controls. In another section, you are a co-pilot of a jet. While you don't get to fly the jet, it does leave with something exciting. You can shoot down other enemy jets. I was never a good flyer in games, so this was gladly welcome. This is the only truly exciting part of the game and it does not last long.

During all the shooting you will do, and you will do a lot of it, there are one too many quick time events. I'm not one to complain about quick time events. When done properly, it can be very exciting. Battlefield 3 is the exact opposite of that. When you get into a quick time event you and another enemy will start hand to hand combat. Instead of pushing a button to trigger the next move, you just push one button and lean back as you watch the scripted fight plays out. This game could have benefited from having a mini brawler game. Push X for punch, Push Circle for kick. Nothing fancy, just something better than this. It happens way to frequent for it to be surprising.

GRAPHICS

The Graphics in this game is insane. The attention to detail should not be ignored. From the faces, water, fire, and environment, all looks amazing. Once I found out Glenn Morshower was in the game, I noticed his character talked the same why he does. It's very startling and awesome. The guns feel real and they each has a unique look to them. However, if you played past military themed games before, you will already know which one is your favorite.


Can you see them?

The lighting is just as detailed. When light is facing you, it does as it does in real life. Gets annoying and blinds your vision. While having flashlights on you make sense, not so much with lasers. The lasers gets right in front of your eye. No matter where the enemy is point and where they are at, it's always following you. This section of the game was stupid and I was shaking my head in disgust.

The audio is also another thing worth noting. The voice acting does a good job on showing some emotion, it's not the best we've ever heard, but it works. The explosions, the firing of the weapons, the yelling for orders. Everything is in top form. I was afraid that my headphones was going to blow out. While the sound of the weapons is amazing, it still sounds like a pea shooter. When firing a gun, I expect it to make loud cracking sounds. While it does sound weak, the guns is powerful. It takes a couple of good shots to take someone down.


DIFFICULTY


At least it looks good

Make no mistake, this game is surprisingly difficult. I'm not used to Battlefield games, but the ones that I have played was just a difficult. While I can see someone blowing past this with ease, with cheap deaths in the short amount of time I had the game I reluctantly switch the difficulty. I manage to beat the first few missions on normal and that took a good 40 minutes. On easy, it took no less than 20. Easy is too easy. Normal is too hard. If I had the game longer, I would have beaten the game on normal, but I was in a timetable. This is where the game separates itself from other military themed games. You are a badass in the game because the game didn't make you one. The game can be beaten in 6 hours. It's not that long of a game, but because the way the game is, it feels like it's long just to be long by giving out cheap deaths when ever you mess up. Whether by your moves, or where you went.

STORY

This is wasted potential. You play as a marine named Blackburn. He is sent in of questions of treason. The entire game feels one massive flashback into how you got the way you are. This would have been interesting, but they started to add more characters for you to play as and the story is not in order. I love nonlinear storytelling. I blame Quentin Tarantino for this, but at least his storytelling is focused. Here, it's all over the place. Nothing really make sense. All it is, is an excuse to throw many missions under one game. They tried to be shocking the way Call Of Duty is, but where Call Of Duty succeeds, Battlefield 3 fails. There is one mission where you are a french solider and you start killing cops towards the end of the mission. It's all pointless. Then you see a character get executed. Again, pointless. This is all this story is, pointless. This story would have been better if it was told in a linear line. Not all games need to be nonlinear.

OVERALL

Battlefield 3 takes everything you like about Uncharted, Rainbow Six, and Call Of Duty and makes it as dull as possible. The team at DICE knows the Frostbite 2 engine and knows it well. What they don't know, or at least forgot to, is to make an exciting game. In that stupid war against Battlefield and Call Of Duty, there is no winner. At least Call of Duty, despite it's tired formula, is an exciting game.

"Dissolve"

This is what Director Hideo Kojima had in mind when making Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots. Dissolve was chosen because it's Solid Snake's finale mission and it was to be the end of The Patriots. Another theme within the game is Redemption. Almost every character in the game has a moment of Redemption. One of the characters that did not have a redemptive scene was Vamp. I don't think he was ever meant to be redeemed. Another theme that the game has is sacrifice. The ending of Metal Gear Solid 4 is a perfect way to end the series, but it's also kind of a paradox.

PUT ASIDE THE GUN AND LIVE

It's no secret that the final cut scene of Metal Gear Solid 4 is long. It almost pushes the hour mark by the time the credits begin to roll. After a few cut scenes, where it finishes out the character's own story ark, it cuts to Solid Snake in a graveyard. This is the same graveyard Big Boss was in at the end of Snake Eater. Snake just sits there holding a gun. He thinks of all that he has done to save the lives of many; and he is ready to do it again. Only this time, the way to do it is to kill himself. He puts the barrel to his mouth, un cocks the gun, and then the camera pulls out over to some trees near by. A gunshot is heard as birds flies away. Like Snake Eater, where I always almost cry at the end of that game, I flinch at the sound of the gunshot. This was to be Snake's last moments and we are with him to the very end. After a brief credit roll, a new cut scene begins.


"I finally understand the meaning behind your words"

Snake is on his hand and knees. Sweating profusely and the gun empty. He breaths heavily as he hears a voice. It was telling him that it was good that he didn't kill himself. Snake looks and then there he is, Big Boss. They both stare at each other not knowing what the other will do. Big Boss moves closer raising his Patriot Gun, Snake is quickly reloading his. Big Boss aims his gun and then drops it. Confused, Snake watches as the weapon falls and without warning Big Boss comes in a perform some CQC. It doesn't last long and it ends with Big Boss holding his surviving clone. Big Boss offers peace and he begins to explain everything the Metal Gear Solid series has stood for and what has happened.

IT ALL STARTED WITH HIM

Big Boss begins to do a lot of info dump. I don't really like info dump that much, because it feels lazy, but Metal Gear Solid 4 has deserved this. There was a lot of information that the initial story couldn't do. It begins with how Big Boss is still alive. If Big Boss was in his fifties when they created his clones in the 70s, then that means that Big Boss is around 80 years old. It also shows further understanding of Ocelot's goal from Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2. If you played Metal Gear Solid 3, there is a good chance to know that Ocelot's mother is The Boss. He sacrificed himself, just like she did during The Cold War.


The ruler all.

This is also the moment when we found out who Created The Patriots. It was Zero. Zero was Big Boss's commander during Snake Eater. Zero used the funds of the Philosopher's Legacy to help create the Patriots. Other founders include; Signit, Eva, Para-medic, Big Boss, and Ocelot. Big Boss and Zero was best friends, but a falling out left them separated. They both had different interpretation of The Boss's will. Zero wanted in inside world, a world that comes together as one, but as Zero got older, he became more paranoid. So, to it protect the will he created AIs. Four AIs named after the three Presidents on the Mount Rushmore and another AI named John Doe. Then one day the AIs became self aware and deviated from Zero's and The Boss Will and crated it's own will. One that keeps the AI becoming stronger and more controlled of the world. No one saw this coming. Not even Zero himself. It took a good while, but The Patriots found a way to keep its new found power growing; The War Economy.

SEND ZERO BACK TO NOTHING

Now that the Patriots are no more, thanks to Sunny and the FOXALIVE program, the world has gone back to zero. In Big Boss's Redemption, he kills his old friend and mentor, Zero. Earlier in the game, Snake is implanted with a new version of FOXDIE, and it was designed to kill the original members. Then Big Boss falls. Ready to die, he asks Snake to take him to The Boss's grave. Big Boss then explains that the new FOXDIE is uprooting the old version. The old FOXDIE was mutating, and if it was not for the new version of FOXDIE, the old FOXDIE would have caused a epidemic.


To me, this is where the Paradox begins. Snake goes through a lot of crap to stop Liquid Ocelot, even still. He does all the stuff he was willing to do all along and he never got his sacrifice. If Snake killed himself to make sure that he didn't become a walking virus that can kill everybody, that would have been his ultimate sacrifice. He may not redeemed himself, because he doesn't have a reason too, but at least he can be like his brothers. Sacrificing himself for the greater good. Liquid and Solidus wanted the same thing, to end the Patriots rule. They both sacrificed themselves to make it happen. Even Ocelot sacrificed himself to see it happen.

IN MEMORY OF A PATRIOT, WHO SAVED THE WORLD

In Big Boss's final effort of life, he understood what The Boss stood for, and he does one of the greatest scenes ever in gaming. He toughs out the pain, he gets his feet together, he slowly raises his hand, then he salutes his mentor. It's a phenomenal scene from the series, and one of my favorite moments in gaming.


Only one scene comes close. Can you guess?

Big Boss shows his respect for Snake for the first time, and as Big Boss raises his hand to shake, he falls. This is the final minutes of Big Boss, and he talks about how Zero, himself, Liquid, and Solidus was not so different. They wanted to change the world for the better. Big Boss asks Snake to leave war and live on. He can finally be free.


"Dissolve"


Snake picks up the cigar and places it on Big Boss's lips and he gives one final puff.

"This is good, isn't it"

No matter how it ended, it's still a fantastic ending to a series that changed gaming. While this isn't the end of Metal Gear, it is the end of Solid Snake. And what an amazing end it is.

Remember playing an old game and then you see something that didn't have anything to do with the game? Remember that rush you felt when you found something, and telling your friends the next day? Those days are now gone. With the Internet you can find out about an Easter Egg before you even get the game. While some games still keep that tradition, it's no longer a mystery if you will find them or not. If there is a game that as an Easter Egg then there is a very good chance that the Easter Eggs are found within a week.

KEEP PLAYING


Fat Drake was for both Single and Mulitplayer

One of the things that is greatly missed in this generation of games is unlockables. Few games have this feature in their games. It's always fun to see that when beating a game there is a reason to go back to. It helps that if the game is amazing, and you were going to play it again anyway, the unlockables would have given you extra reasons. Unlockables can range from; Videos, Art, and gameplay tweaks. One of the best games of this generation, at least to me, is the first two Uncharted games. One of the reasons is because the amount of tweaks the game gives you. You would need to get them by either money or treasures. It all depends which game you play. Uncharted 3 is missing this feature. They do have unlockables, but you can only unlock them by playing the game, but it's only videos. With the rise of DLC, Unlockables are becoming a thing of the past. I want to unlock them, not buy them.

NO ONE NEEDS TO PROTECT IT

Another awesome thing games have is Easter Eggs. Easter Eggs are hidden surprises that rewards players by going that extra time into looking around the environment. On of the biggest surprises in 2009 was X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition. Not only was it one of the very few good movie/game tie end. That in itself is a bit of a paradox seeing that the movie was terrible, but the game was great. I really didn't know much about the game one of the reasons I wanted to play it was because of the M rating. This is a very shallow reason to play a game, and I don't recommend anyone doing it. The other reason was because it's Wolverine. We finally get to see the grim reality with those blades he has.


Hope he doesn't forget to push the button

It didn't have a lot of Easter Eggs, but the one that I didn't know made me geek out. It happens early in the game where you are outside. I found this door and broke it to get past it. Then there it was The Hatch from Lost. I love Lost. It is one of my most favorite TV shows of all time, so seeing that made me geek out into excitement. Then the light came on and an achievement was unlocked called "Found." The coolest thing about this is that they didn't put it there no reason. Two of the actors in the film was in the series. Other Lost game related Easter Eggs include; Just Cause 2, Modern Warfare 3, Half Life 2: Episode 2, World At War, and World of Warcraft. Another of my favorite shows of all time is Breaking Bad and RAGE had a Easter Egg that relates to the series.

DOES HE KNOW THE PASSWORD

Halo has a ton of Easter Eggs that relates to the fans of the game. One of the best ones is from Halo 3. In the game you will come across a couple of soldiers talking about passwords. Depending on the difficulty, you will hear members of Rooster Teeth. The creators of Red Vs Blue. Even in the last Halo game they've added a really cool Easter Egg where they thanked the community for being fans of the games. It's a shame that so few games has Easter Eggs now. It gives you a reason to go back and play a game and look at the nooks and crannies the game has.

A COLLECT CODEC CALL

Sometimes, Easter Eggs are triggered by doing something in the game. Metal Gear Solid has a whole plethora of Easter Eggs ready to be unlocked. In Metal Gear Solid 4, there is this one where after you die, you can call up Rose and she will tell you about a nightmare she had where Snake was killed. She even goes into detail of how you died. It's a nice twist and puts the whole thing into a weird, if non canon, look over the whole series. In Metal Gear Solid 3, if you saved at a certain point, when you come back you can play this short game where you are a vampire hunter. The small mini game was fun and wished there was a game like that. Another Easter Egg is the Metal Gear Solid series has is hidden codec calls. It's all staggering that Kojima has put this much effort on something most will probably never listen. Even Super Mario Brothers Brawl used Codec Calls for Snake.


Stating the obvious since 1987

Easter Eggs and Unlockables are some of gamings greatest treats. They can make you play a game to find them, or keep you playing to make the game you want it to be. It can make a difficult part much more fun, or make the game better than ever before. I'm sure there are games out there that has Easter Eggs, but it comes to the point where you don't know which one does or which one does not.

The PSVita has released and I got to spend a little time with it.

The PSvita is the next generation of Sony's Handheld market. Meant to be better than the PSP, Sony is hoping to have a bigger success than their past PSP systems. What I noticed was the analog sticks; It felt like I was using a brand new Dual Shock Controller. If you ever played with a new Playstation controller, then you know what this would feel like. I got to play the painfully short Uncharted: Golden Abyss Demo. The game looks fantastic. It feels like an Uncharted game. You can move Drake the way you would in the Playstation 3 games. For some reason the sound wasn't working, but I think that has something to do with the store. The touch screen stuff is pretty nifty; if you chose to use it. Unlike the Nintendo handhelds where you need your stylus, you don't need one on the PSVita. Your fingertips are fine enough.


It does look DAMN good

I only used the touch screen as an option just to see how it works. If Drake needs to climb somewhere you can just swipe your finger across the yellow ledges and he will follow. This makes the game play for itself; and I would never use it because of that. Part of the fun of Uncharted is going to one section to another without knowing if Drake will fall or not. I would tell you about the shooting, but the demo ends before you can do the rest of the Uncharted stuff. It doesn't even tell you when the demo ends, it just start over.


The screen itself is amazing. If they can make a handheld Uncharted look this good, there is no telling what it will look like when the system is figured out. There are a few other demos; ModNation Racers and Gravity Shift, but haven't got to them yet. As sleek as it is, it's hard to know if it's worth the $250 price tag. The only game that seems to take advantage of the technology is Uncharted: Golden Abyss. If I got to play more of Uncharted, and it showed off more of what the system can do, I would have much more to say. Unfortunately, the demo they had set up hasn't convince me to want to get one.

(sorry for being so short this time. I had another topic planned, but that went bust. I knew I had to write something, so I wrote this)

I'm not going to say that anybody can come out with a First Person shooter so easily. There are too many complex factors that I don't understand. While each game plays the same, what makes them want us to play them? Could it be the settings? Could it be the developer behind the game? There are a ton of reasons to want to play a game. The big question is, why do we continue to play the game afterward?

I DON'T RELY ON LUCK

In preparation of Mass Effect 3, I bought Mass Effect 2. What keeps the games unique is the hook that they have that makes it great. That hook is the world that Bioware has created. Whole galaxies of history, races, places, and technology. Have you ever heard some of the codecs from the game? Each race has their own biology, psychology, religion, politics, history, everything a race needs to keep them unique. The games are fantastic. It's learning more about the galaxy out there that makes me play it again. You will never know if you will learn something new about the game.


A Complex Race.

Hooks can be a powerful thing, but they don't only apply to big games like Mass Effect. Sometimes it can be the characters themselves. Nathan Drake is one of the greatest new character to hit video games in a good while. A wise cracking, always lucky, treasure hunter make the Uncharted games funny and fresh. Even though he's no super solider, he takes more beatings than any other character in gaming. From a train crash to a plane crash, Drake always finds a way to survive. Seeing how Nathan Drake escapes danger time and time again is one of the hooks of the games. The brilliant thing about the games is that it's got several hooks. One hook that the games have is the other characters. Elena Fisher, Victor Sullivan, Chloe Frazer, and others are great around Drake. The story is the another hook the game has. All the games has a great story that makes you come back time and time again.

HIP THREE MINUTE DITTIES

Call Of Duty has a phenomenal hook. The single player is short and not really worth it half the time. What it does have that fans continue to go back to is its Multiplayer. That need to upgrade and get better weapons. While I do believe that Call Of Duty has run its course, there is no denying that Multiplayer is the reason why people buy the game and not for the Single Player. Before mulitplayer became big, the hook for Call Of Duty 4 was that it was finally leaving World War 2 and going for a more modern setting.


There was a time where this was Fresh

What makes them hooks in the first place? Hooks is something that grabs you. Hooks also implies to music. No matter the song or genre, there is something that just grabs you and you will remember it at the end, and that end will make you go back. The same goes for games. If it doesn't have that hook there would be no reason to spend up to 100 hours on a game. If there is no hook than that game has failed. Would you really want to spend a few hours a day on something that is boring. Take Guitar Hero. The first time I played the game I was terrible at it. It took a couple of tries to get it, but once I did I could hardly stop. I would go to the nearest Best Buy just to play it. People would come and watch me play. I was never good enough to play it on expert, but I was pretty good with Normal. I used to be really good at Jordan by Buckethead. Every once in a while someone would get the game, just because they saw me play it. Those music games had a very clear and amazing hook.

ONLY THEN SHALL I ABIDE

Sometimes, when you play a game, you don't know what the hook is til you play it yourself. Bayonetta's hook, or at least it was trying to be, was its sex appeal. While I didn't care about the sex appeal, I did play the game and had a lot of fun with it. To me the biggest hook that game has is its total fucking insanity. The game play and the insanity was worth the price.


Don't let her fool you. It's a hard game, but a great one

There are a ton of games out there that has a hook or two that will keep you coming back. Either the story or stealth in Metal Gear Solid. The brutal difficulty of Ninja Gaiden. Or something as simple as puzzles in a new way. Each successful game has a hook that developers and publishers take advantage of. If a game doesn't have a good enough hook, or no hook at all that game is going to fail.